“Begin with the end in mind” is the second of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Too bad that more
folks – particularly those leading
mission oriented enterprises – don’t follow Covey’s advice.
People
who run really good programs get a lot of complements. One you hear quite often
is that "the place runs like a well-oiled machine". What we mean when we say that is that each of
the components of the operation fit together well, that each member of the team
knows their role (and knows what is NOT their role), and that everybody has a
clear sense of the overall objective of the enterprise.
Several
times a year I have the distinct pleasure of stepping to the front of a
classroom and working with folks who are speaking to build new ventures. One of
the first things we cover is the basic business model. Any easy way to see this
is to think of a pizza oven. The basic ingredients are dough, tomato sauce and
cheese ( add pepperoni and mushroom if you're making it for me, please). The process is: roll out the dough, put the
sauce and cheese on top, and bake. The output is pizza. Simple, easy. From there, it's not a big jump to an
automotive assembly line. After you get that in your head, you start to
understand more about how a successful venture is built mostly on how you
execute.
The next
big leap is to move from outputs (what you make), to outcomes (what difference
you make because of what you produce).
The outcomes of pizza are a full belly and a happy kid. Depending on the
kind of car, outputs can range from not being late to work, to impressing your
beau or neighbor, to being on the cover of QG.
Now we
move to my calling, the social benefit organization. And all of the sudden this
becomes rather murky. The good news is that much of the haze is unnecessary and
can be cleared with some good, basic logic (why that logic is not applied more
often is a subject for another day).
The
interesting thing is that just about every social entrepreneur can clearly
articulate the problem that intends to be solved - far more readily and with
much greater passion than the typical commercial venture. Hunger, homelessness, literacy and thousands
more basic human needs are easy to see. And the short term fixes are just as
easy – Food, blankets, tutors – you get the idea. But most folks involved in these
missions don’t spend a lot of time working
through the mechanics of how the process flows. The social benefit organization
that looks at how to deliver the service more efficiently is a rare bird
indeed. Even rarer is the one that can talk about how the work makes a
difference over time. But if we are to truly achieve the promise of social
entrepreneurship, we need to be able to point to outcomes, just like the
commercial entrepreneur.
The
academics call this a program logic model (a concept adapted in part from the
IT industry, which goes to show that there really is nothing new under the
sun). At its most basic, it’s really just the notion that
there is a distinct difference between giving a person a fish and teaching them
how to fish (or if you’re really bold – how you revolutionize the fishing industry). At its most
valuable and complete state, it’s a clear pathway from inputs
to process to outputs to outcomes – outcomes, by the way, that can be used to attract investors in ways that help you actually grow the mission. And while I certainly recognize the
value of a warm blanket and a hot meal, I’d like to suggest that
thinking more about how we can get folks to long term self-sufficiency may be a
nobler endeavor.
The best
news of all is that developing such a model is actually lot easier than you
think. The tool is called “backwards mapping” (a curriculum development technique commonly used in education, brought forward to the social benefit
space). If you’re getting the feeling that what I’m advocating is a much more systematic approach to social
benefit organizations, you’re correct. In the end, it’s
nothing more complex than Covey’s 2nd habit. And the time to begin is right now.
